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In January 1963, the young British rock group “The Beatles” flew home to London from Hamburg, Germany, having just completed a two-week run of shows at the Star Club. Their first single, “Love Me Do,” released the previous October, had been a modest success, reaching No. 17 on the U.K. charts, and they were hoping that the follow-up, “Please Please Me,” set for release on Jan. 11, would fare better.
They could hardly have guessed that “Please Please Me” would be the spark that lit the fuse that would result in their busiest year to date. By Dec. 31, 1963, The Beatles had released four singles, three EPs, two albums; appeared on radio 49 times and on television 35 times; and made 287 additional live appearances. Paul McCartney turned 21. John Lennon became a father. Both were hailed by the London Times as the Outstanding Composers of 1963.
To Americans, 1964 was the year of The Beatles, but is was in 1963 that they became full-fledged stars in their native land, leading to the British Invasion of the United States and “Beatlemania” in ‘64. Screaming girls, throngs of fans, bushels of albums being sold—this was when it all started. In 1963, The Beatles were exploding in England. Presented is the personal stage jacket that George Harrison wore while performing with The Beatles in 1963. The gray pinpoint wool jacket has black velvet accents on the two front pockets, four gray plastic buttons down the front, black velvet accents and gray plastic button on each sleeve cuff, and a black velvet collar. The interior half-lining is in red patterned satin. The front pockets are sewn closed, with one interior vest pocket. There straight back has no vent or cut.
Harrison became part of the Beatles with Paul McCartney and John Lennon when the band were still a skiffle group called the Quarrymen. In March 1958, he auditioned for the Quarrymen at Rory Storm's Morgue Skiffle Club, playing Arthur "Guitar Boogie" Smith's "Guitar Boogie Shuffle", but Lennon felt that Harrison, having just turned 15, was too young to join the band. McCartney arranged a second meeting, on the upper deck of a Liverpool bus, during which Harrison impressed Lennon by performing the lead guitar part for the instrumental "Raunchy". He began socializing with the group, filling in on guitar as needed, and then became accepted as a member. Although his father wanted him to continue his education, Harrison left school at 16 and worked for several months as an apprentice electrician at Blackler’s, a local department store. During the group's first tour of Scotland, in 1960, Harrison used the pseudonym "Carl Harrison" in reference to American rocker Carl Perkins.
By 1963, Harrison was well-established with The Beatles, and very popular with the band’s young female fans. The groups stylish “mod” clothing, like this jacket, and their “mop-top” haircuts established the foursome as forward-thinking young influencers. According to Gordon Millings, the son of Don Millings, the tailor who made all the stage and personal clothing for The Beatles, the jacket is authentic and was created by his father in his London shop. Gordon Millings authenticated this jacket in July 2006 and inscribed his initials on the lining of the inside pocket. This jacket was previously on exhibit in “The Magical History Tour: A Beatles Memorabilia Exhibition” which toured the United States from 2015 to 2019.
The Beatles 1963 commercial success brought increased media exposure, to which the Beatles responded with an irreverent and comical attitude that defied the expectations of pop musicians at the time, inspiring even more interest. The band toured the UK three times in the first half of the year: a four-week tour that began in February, the Beatles' first nationwide, preceded three-week tours in March and May–June. As their popularity spread, a frenzied adulation of the group took hold. Greeted with riotous enthusiasm by screaming fans, the press dubbed the phenomenon "Beatlemania". Although not billed as tour leaders, the Beatles overshadowed American acts Tommy Roe and Chris Montez during the February engagements and assumed top billing "by audience demand", something no British act had previously accomplished while touring with artists from the US. A similar situation arose during their May–June tour with Roy Orbison. In late October, the Beatles began a five-day tour of Sweden, their first time abroad since the final Hamburg engagement of December 1962. On their return to the UK on 31 October, several hundred screaming fans greeted them in heavy rain at Heathrow Airport. Around 50 to 100 journalists and photographers, as well as representatives from the BBC, also joined the airport reception, the first of more than 100 such events. The next day, the band began its fourth tour of Britain within nine months, this one scheduled for six weeks. In mid-November, as Beatlemania intensified, police resorted to using high-pressure water hoses to control the crowd before a concert in Plymouth.
Harrison and The Beatles were a hit in Britain and in 1964 they set out to conquer the New World. On February 7, 1964, the Beatles left the UK with an estimated 4,000 fans gathered at Heathrow, waving and screaming as the aircraft took off. Upon landing at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport, an uproarious crowd estimated at 3,000 greeted them. They gave their first live US television performance two days later on The Ed Sullivan Show, watched by approximately 73 million viewers in over 23 million households, or 34 percent of the American population.